Bono’s Poverty-Fighting Plan Promoted by Two Ex-Senators

from The New York Times

By JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON, Two former Senate leaders who were once fierce adversaries, Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, joined together Monday to promote a bipartisan effort to make global poverty a central issue of the 2008 presidential race.

The antipoverty drive, called the One Campaign, which was founded by the rock star Bono to combat hunger and draw attention to the plight of children in African countries, is pledging to invest $30 million to persuade presidential candidates to address the issue.

“It is in the strategic and national interest of the United States of America,” said Mr. Frist, a Republican and former Senate majority leader from Tennessee. “People do not go to war with people who save their children’s lives.”

Both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will be asked to sign a pledge in the fall saying they will offer proposals to fight H.I.V./AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, improve children’s health in other ways, increase access to education, provide access to clean water and reduce by half the number of people who suffer from hunger.

“Through the extraordinary challenge we now have, it is incumbent upon all of us to recognize that this must be a key part of American foreign policy,” said Mr. Daschle, a Democrat and former Senate majority leader from South Dakota.

Mr. Frist and Mr. Daschle, co-chairmen of the One Vote ’08 effort, began the lobbying campaign Monday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church here on Capitol Hill, with supporters joining by satellite from Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

While dozens of interest groups have formed coalitions to influence presidential candidates, the One Campaign stands apart because of its bipartisan leadership and a $22 million investment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which will be invested in mobilizing supporters across the country.

The Republican and Democratic National Committees endorsed the effort Monday, saying presidential contenders should include proposals to combat global poverty in their campaign agendas. Organizers have hired experienced political strategists to work on the One Campaign, educating and urging voters to hold presidential candidates accountable.

“It is an idea where global poverty and disease transcend partisan politics,” said Susan McCue, the president of the One Campaign.